


Before You Fall Down

by Zita



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Exhaustion, Gen, Shepard not everything has to be your problem, Trauma, Turians, orphaned teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-26
Updated: 2012-08-26
Packaged: 2017-11-12 22:19:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/496254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zita/pseuds/Zita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sleep deprived, traumatized turian refugee tries to negotiate with port security while trying to contact her father. It fails to work out until a certain magnet for other peoples' problems intervenes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before You Fall Down

    Pelae's head hurt. All of her hurt for that matter, it was a dull ache that settled somewhere deep in her bones and refused to be shaken. She was suddenly aware of all her aches and pains with a clarity she hadn't had in days, and even noticed that her leg had become bandaged somehow. Someone had done that, but she couldn't pick the image out of the steady rush of memory she'd been slowly muddling her way through. It was impossible to discern whether it had been before arriving in the refugee camp or after, and once she'd figured that out she realized she couldn't exactly remember how she'd gotten off Invictus. Spirits, it was hard enough to keep pace with her own senses right _now._  
  
    And yet through it all, she was trying to focus on the asari that was talking to her. She looked like an idiot, she _knew_ she looked like an idiot, kid with nobody talking to a guard and she couldn't even put together a _sentence_ -  
  
    "I'm sorry. You don't have a license to carry a weapon. We can't let you through armed, and you shouldn't even have that."  
  
    The gun. They wanted her to let go of the _gun_. Pelae stared at it stupidly, she'd nearly forgotten. It was suddenly just there in her awareness, hanging from one taloned hand with the maintenance indicator blinking softly at her like a small, bright eye.  
  
    Pelae couldn't. A surge of ferocious affection for the weapon welled up in her throat. She tightened her grip and didn't notice or care when the asari tensed warily. She owed the gun that much. She had to get to the port to… to _something_ but she could not sacrifice the gun so callously after all it had done for her. It had broke for her and like hell was she going to leave it to die alone.  
  
    "I have to get through," she repeated, voice on the edge of quavering even as she made an attempt at steely firmness. Had she said it already? She couldn't remember, she just wanted to sleep. Pelae's terror had given her a wonderfully functional run, but without as much as a Husk around to renew it her body couldn't bring itself to give anymore without some real rest. Everything she had was spent in that effort that had kept her legs going and the weapon steady in her hands while Talus was screaming in-  
  
    "I'm sorry. I can't just let you."  Pelae's head jolted upward out of the images, and she struggled to focus on the blue face once more.  
  
    "I need to find him. _Please."_ Oh, spirits she was not going to cry. Not here. Not in front of a bunch of aliens. She would go to the other side and find the person and say what she needed to say to them and everything would be okay again. She just had to… gun, but she couldn't _let go_. Pelae struggled to rouse whatever wit she had left to find a _way_ -  
  
    "What's going on over here?"  
  
    Human. Bigger than she was. Armored. Symbols on the armor... Pelae stared at the shapes and tried to make them into letters while the asari said things. She had no success, and then the human was talking at her. It took her a second to notice and remember to listen; the first words were already gone.  
  
    "-me help you?"  
  
    Pelae blinked. "Help me?" she mumbled.  
  
    "Yes. Can I help you?"  
  
    Pelae stared. Help. For her. Slowly, she marshaled the thing she needed into the shape of a sentence. She was surprised by her own success.  
  
    "I need to find out where he is."  
  
    "Who?" It was a gentle question. Listening. Pelae lowered her eyes and listened too. The sounds of the camp around her and port ahead had begun to blur at its edges, and was now just a not-unpleasant hum in her ears.  
  
    "My dad," she elaborated. "He's... somewhere."  
  
    "How do you find out?"  
  
    "I need to ask..." she tailed off. There was someone she needed to ask, she was certain, but _who_? It had seemed clear before, but now Pelae was left on the edge of tears again, clawing at her own useless thoughts for purchase.  
  
    "She's in shock," said the human. Pelae didn't look up. There was nothing new she needed to waste the effort looking at, and the part of her that still had pride kicked while she was down.  
  
    "What am I supposed to do with her? I can't leave my post, and there are hundreds of these guys crawling around. We're doing the best we can here."  
  
    "Why can't you let her through?"  
  
    "She's a wreck, and she's armed. She won't let go of that pistol and she's not licensed to carry one. I'd lose my job, and I'd be putting her and everybody around her in danger."  
  
    There was a pause and Pelae forced her eyelids high enough to make sure the human hadn't disappeared in the silence.  
  
    "I'm going through. I can take her with me and keep an eye on her. If anything happens, it'll be on my head."  
  
    "You can't be serious."  
  
    "I'm serious. Besides, do you want to have to deal with her for the rest of the day?"  
  
    Quiet again. Pelae managed to look at the asari properly. It was hard to keep focused. Blue frowning at her then at the human, how soft these aliens' faces were. If Pelae were small enough she could have slept on one...  
  
    "...Alright, be my guest. But if she breaks anything or shoots anybody it's on you."  
  
    The human was talking at her again. "Are you still with us, kid?"  
  
    Pelae startled herself by figuring out the answer. "No."  
  
    There was a hand on her shoulder nudging her along and she moved her feet in clumsy compliance with the instinct that kept her upright.  
  
    "C'mon. You need to sit down before you fall down."  
  
    Pelae didn't care anymore. She panicked because for a split second she'd forgot she still had the gun, but when she found its weight still in her hand she was perfectly content to crumple onto a bench and possibly against the human. She was unconscious before she could figure it out.  
  
    Shepard shook her head at the collapsed shape of the young turian. She wasn't sure what she was going to do now, but _someone_ had to do _something_ and as usual, it seemed that someone was her.  
  
    She just needed a few minutes to figure out what her something was going to be.


End file.
